Players share the wealth with bowl gifts

In SportsBusiness Journal’s seventh annual analysis of the gift packages provided to participants in postseason college football games, bowl operators report that with the emergence of gift suites and shopping trips as a popular way to provide these giveaways, players are migrating to a most unexpected place — the women’s section.

Will Webb, executive director of Charlotte Collegiate Football, the nonprofit committee that operates the Belk Bowl and the ACC Dr Pepper Championship football game in Charlotte, relates an experience during last year’s player shopping trip.

“I saw one young man carrying a high-end Cuisinart coffee maker and pink slippers to the checkout counter,” Webb said. “I asked him jokingly if those were for him. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘You have no idea how much this means to me. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever been able to buy my mom a Christmas present.’”

The trip was an integral part of a $70 million sponsorship deal with Charlotte-based retailer Belk, which includes title sponsorship to the annual ACC-Big East matchup. In a ritual that will continue this month, players from each of the competing schools will be taken separately to Belk’s flagship department store in Charlotte’s upscale South Park Mall for a storewide shopping spree. The bowl game will be played Dec. 27 at Bank of America Stadium a few miles away.

The NCAA allows each bowl to award up to $550 worth of gifts to 125 participants per school. Schools can, and almost always do, buy additional packages that they can distribute to participants beyond that 125 limit. In addition, participants can receive awards worth up to $400 from the school and up to $400 from the conference for postseason play, covering both conference title games and any bowl game.

Gift suites are set up as private events in which game participants, and often bowl VIPs, are given an order form and allowed to select a gift, or gifts, up to a value that is predetermined by each specific bowl, not to exceed the NCAA limit.

“The need for women’s VIP gifts has increased considerably over the past few years,” said Doug Smith, Fossil’s vice president of sales and operations for the corporate markets division. “One of our most popular brands that we have the license for — meaning we design, manufacture and distribute — is Michael Kors, and that helps position us well with

It’s become more common for players on sponsor-provided shopping trips to pick up something they can give to others. Here, players in last year’s Belk Bowl look over watches.Photo by: Mark Sluder / Belk Stores

cheerleaders and coaches’ wives.”

Fossil products will appear in 19 bowl packages this year (including those for players, cheerleaders, staff and VIPs), the most of any vendor.

Players re-gifting their bowl gains is not new, but prior to the gift suites and shopping trips, their only options were whatever was in the gift bag presented to them.

Jon Cooperstein, who helped conceive the gift suite concept at the 2008 Orange Bowl, said his company, Performance Award Center, is offering a substantially more diverse selection of products this year. That’s because he and his staff have noticed that players are now just as likely to use the experience to shop for others as they are to sign up for things for themselves.

“When we were at the Alabama-Texas BCS championship game in 2010, one of the Alabama players came to me and said he wanted to select the watch with the bowl logo, but asked if we could fit it to someone else,” said Cooperstein, who was running the gift suite on behalf of the Rose Bowl committee. “I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but he disappeared and came back a few minutes later with his grandfather in a wheelchair and said he wanted to give his bowl watch to him. It was a very emotional experience for everyone.”

One new product making its appearance this year will be Sol Republic headphones. Seen frequently this summer being worn by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, players competing in the AutoZone Liberty and GoDaddy.com bowls will each receive a set.

As in each of our previous reports, the committees representing the AT&T Cotton and New Era Pinstripe bowls would not disclose the contents of their gift packages.

* To be spent during the team’s official store visit. Balance not used that day will be forfeited.
All times listed are ET. Product details are provided as they were available. Most watches, rings, clothing and luggage are custom-made with the bowl logo. Gift suites are set up as private events in which game participants, and often bowl VIPs, are given an order form and allowed to select a gift, or gifts, up to a value that is predetermined by each specific bowl, not to exceed the NCAA limit of $550 per person.

Compiled by David Broughton and Brandon McClung
Sources: Bowl committees and vendors